Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

It was a miracle that in the last few years the Garrison hadn’t actually changed anything about their security. Like, guys, you had a major break-in by a former student where you lost not only a teacher who’d been assumed dead, but three other students all in one night. Lance thought maybe they would even add actual security guards and not just a few higher year cadets trying to get some community hours or something but nope.

Just the same blinking camera that could easily be, say, tagged with an override chip by someone with excellent aim and hacked by someone with equally amazing computer knowledge.

Pidge looped the footage for the Garrison’s control room and transmitted the actual video to the computer Hunk was handling back in Keith’s shack. They were being advised as to what vacant hallways to take and yelled at when they had to duck into a bathroom or a supply closet.

“Buddy, you’re literally in our ears, you don’t have to scream,” Lance muttered, a mop fully pressing into his spine. The faint blue glow of Shiro’s hand lit the space and they all winced when Hunk gave another panicked squeak.

“I got nervous, Professor Tenia was really close.” He made a disgruntled noise, “She cut her hair and it doesn’t work with her head shape at all. She kinda looks like a banana.”

“Hey, that’s pointy face exclusionism.”

“But your hair cut works for your facial structure.”

“Hunk,” Shiro said, thumping his head back into the wall. “Coast clear?”

Hunk gave a little oh before saying, “Yup. Empty. She went through the Math wing, so continue right the normal way. Nobody’s in the teacher’s lounge so I don’t think you have to be that careful around it.”

“Thanks,” Lance whispered, Shiro carefully pulling the door back open for all of them to slip through.

It wasn’t that the Garrison was against them. They were on neutral terms, these unruly cadets that got themselves lost in space but somehow became universal symbols of peace and the institution that lost them in the first place. It was a mixed bag on the PR. Sam Holt got them on okay enough ground that the Garrison agreed to allow them back in if they wanted. ‘Course, that’d be after a period of time for them to settle back with their families, catch up.

But just because the Garrison were showing an inch of hospitality didn’t mean there was a mile of shady shit to uncover.

Sam and Colette led with that, the fact they were being shut out. Sam gave them some information, enough to back off and still find them useful.

I’ve heard whispers of a project to reach out to the Galra, Colette had told them, diligently tying Pidge’s longer hair back into a braid with a deadly serious expression on her face. To make some sort of pact. An allegiance. Despite everything they’ve done to you, to my husband, to my children, when I asked, I didn’t get a negative.

Lance had met Keith’s eye and risen an eyebrow. On one of their brief periods during the road trip where they could be alone together, he’d made the stupid bet of, Ten bucks the Garrison is actually overrun by Galra by the time we get back.

Keith had scowled and flashed five fingers. Lance stuck his tongue out.

So here they were. Infiltrating the Garrison.

Most of his stress came from the thought of getting discovered and his ma gutting him. Veronica had been shut out from most of the Garrison’s operations after Sam had come back too, so she couldn’t give much else except for the promise that she would provide an alibi for them if they needed it.

“Would it be hard to sneak into Admiral Sanda’s room and cover her in shaving cream?”

“Yes, Pidge, it would,” Shiro answered. “I’m pretty sure she has attack dogs in there or something.”

Lance shook his head, repositioning his gun in the crook of his elbow, “I wouldn’t put it past her. I think she growled at Hunk one time when he asked her to repeat something during a lecture.”

“She one hundred percent barked, guys, I’m serious,” Hunk chimed in. “Also left here. Go around the lounge, I think I see one of the English teachers coming your way.”

They followed the instructions, circling back to the wing with all the staff dorms. Lance glanced at Shiro’s face and found it about as carefully blank as he’d expected. When Sam had said it was Adam who was seemingly deep in the operation, it had gone the same way. Keith had lifted his head off Lance’s shoulder, suddenly wide awake.

What?

It had taken a long time for he and Hunk to realize it was Professor Wahaba they were talking about since he mostly taught the higher level cadets. Lance knew about Adam, Shiro had spoken to him about it before, after he’d helped Lance with his Keith Crisis as they so eloquently dubbed it. He just never made the connection.

They needed the information on his computer. His computer, in his room, that used to also be Shiro’s. The plan had to be postponed a few days because Vero got wind that Adam and a few other officers were being sent on a trip down to Florida to talk with NASA about some new safety measures for launches. It was a good window of time. Cutting it close because Adam was scheduled to come back the next day, but most of the staff had their nights off to see their families on Sundays, so.

Shiro had been quiet. Shiro was being quiet. It was unnerving as hell.

And there was the door. They stopped walking. Pidge bumped into Shiro’s back and Lance tripped on her ankle.

“This is where I leave you. Get in quick because I don’t see anybody coming down the hallways, but someone could come out of the rooms.”

Lance scanned the walls for the nearest camera and flashed a thumbs up.

“Great. Good luck.”

They didn’t move. Shiro was staring at the plaque with Officer A. Wahaba beside the doorway. Pidge glanced at Lance, her bottom lip shoved between her teeth worriedly.

Lance nodded and sidestepped her to gently put his hand on Shiro’s arm. Shiro startled, blinking back at him like he’d forgotten they were there. Lance tilted his head. You good?

Shiro opened and closed his mouth. He nodded quickly and turned back, motioning for Pidge to get in front of him. She patted his arm in a brief mirror of Lance’s reassurance and took out the lock pick, fitting it over the seam of the doors.

“Takashi,” Keith’s voice was significantly quieter on the comms and yet Lance could still hear the frown. “Are you okay?”

“Peachy,” Shiro said faintly. Lance stifled a snort.

The door opened with a small click. They filed in quickly, Lance shutting and locking it again. When he turned back, Shiro hadn’t moved. He was barely two steps inside. Even in the dark after the flash of putting away their bayards, his eyes were darting over everything, slowly getting more and more unfocused.

Pidge had ventured in, cursing when she bumped into the dark shape of a coffee table, “Fucking shi—Lights, guys.”

Shiro flicked them on before Lance could.

It was a pretty standard Garrison dorm. Lance had gone to study sessions and impromptu parties in the rooms of the higher level cadets that had almost the same set-ups. The coffee table in front of the couch facing a TV, an open-ended kitchen to the left. There were books scattered around on different surfaces and a stack of graded assignments dated for a day before when Adam was scheduled to leave to Florida, a grey sweater thrown over the back of the couch. A laptop on the kitchen table.

Something about the set up nagged the back of Lance’s mind but he blamed it on the conditioning of it being a professor’s room.

“Bingo,” Pidge muttered and hopped up on one of the high chairs surrounding the bar. She flipped the computer open and pressed the power button, the screen winking as it started up.

“Did you find the computer?”

Lance nodded even if Hunk couldn’t see, turning slowly on his heel to survey the rest of the room, “Yup. Personal laptop on the first go.” It hadn’t been a goal to get the laptop, but it was better for a stealth mission since the Garrison-issued computer was monitored. Lance stopped turning when Shiro shifted, slowly walking over to a little nook of shelves next to the kitchen.

There were a few model spaceships, an award for something, and two framed pictures. One was of a gathering people who had to be Adam’s family, arms around each other, grinning wide at the camera. The other was more one of those aesthetic shots that came with the frame, sun setting in muted purples behind the rock ridges of the desert close enough to night that there were stars winking out farthest from the light.

Pidge grunted and Lance snapped out of it. Shiro did not. “What’s up, Pidge Podge?”

“Password protected,” she responded. “I’m a little out of practice since I’ve gotten used to just jamming Shiro’s hand in and letting it do all the work.”

Lance rose an eyebrow, striding to peer over her shoulder, “Didn’t you bring your pick?”

She flashed the thin, USB-looking decryption device and stuck it in the computer’s port with a grand gesture. The screen didn’t change.

Lance blinked.

“Nothing?”

“Nope,” Pidge said. She let her head fall back with a groan, “He might have a custom system. I’m gonna have to do it manually.”

Lance whistled through his teeth and Keith’s voice came in clearly, “Try ‘Xgongiveittoyou’.”

Pidge peeled one eye open so her confused glare met Lance’s. “Gesundheit.”

“I had to use the laptop sometimes. If it’s the same one, that’s the password.”

Lance repeated the phrase slowly before straightening up, “Wait, like the song? Like from Deadpool?”

There was a beat of silence before Hunk whispered, “They can’t see you, dude,” and Keith coughed, “Oh, uh, yeah. Adam was obsessed with it. He considered seriously changing his last name to Wilson for a good amount of time. Capital X, ‘giv’ without an e, and the number two, not the word.”

Pidge typed it in quickly.

“Wrong password,” Lance read out loud and pressed a hand to his comm. “Nice try, though, buddy. It’s amazing how you can remember that after a couple of years but not my first name.”

There was a general muffle of snickers from both Hunk and Pidge, Keith blowing a loud raspberry, “I didn’t forget your name, I just thought it was something else—“

“Right, uh, ‘Who are you—‘“

“Maybe Taylor’s the password,” Pidge mused and tried it out.

It obviously wasn’t, but it would’ve been so cool if it was, right? Lance faked a gasp, “It worked!”

A genuine, “It did?”

Pidge barked a laugh and Lance and Hunk echoed it. Keith huffed and Lance didn’t have to see him to know he was all pink. “I can’t believe you—“

“Keith, my dude—“

Lance only jumped when Shiro said, “Let me…” because he’d been so quiet in going over to them. Pidge did too, Lance having to put his arms out under hers so she didn’t fall backwards. They leaned out of the laptop’s way so Shiro could access it.

He stared at the screen for a second before typing something out fast enough that Lance couldn’t figure it out.

The laptop made a twinkly little noise and opened up to a regular looking desktop with a close up picture of Jupiter as the wallpaper. They stayed silent, Keith breaking it with a cautious, “Guys?”

“We’re in, don’t worry,” Shiro said, voice completely neutral. “You can start turning on the connection over there, Hunk. We’ll be out of here in a bit.”

Hunk said, “Okay?”, and the small box Lance had clipped to his belt vibrated. He took it off wordlessly and put it on the counter for Pidge to plug it into the laptop. And Hunk, because he was Hunk, asked, “So what was it?”

And Lance, because he was Lance, and could see the way Shiro froze up, somehow even less accessible, said, “I’m sending it to you,” before bringing up the small screen on the face of his watch and typing something into his chat with Hunk. Lance didn’t miss the way Shiro’s eyes went round and he waved a dismissing hand.

A tinny ping over the line was followed by an explosive groan from Hunk and a confused noise from Keith that forced Lance to cackle. Pidge looked up from the now blue screen with a raised eyebrow and Lance put up a shaking finger that let her pause for Keith’s perfectly timed, “What the hell is sugondese?”

Lance beat Shiro at clapping a hand over Pidge’s mouth so her shriek of a giggle didn’t echo off the walls despite how he was holding back his laughter. Even Shiro’s mouth was twitching when Lance dared to glance at him. It stretched into a thankful smile.

Lance nodded.

“Why the f—Hunk, are you okay? What is it? What’d I say? What’s sugondese?”

“Keith, stop, please, I’m crying,” Pidge choked out, pushing lance’s hand away.

“What do I have to stop—“

Lance finally got enough air in his lungs to say, “I-I don’t even want to finish the joke because your confusion is so cute—.”

“I’m gonna strangle both of you when—Great, Hunk fell over. You killed him. You fucking killed Hunk. Are you proud of yourself, Lance?”

“Very,” Lance responded, wiping a nonexistent tear from his eye as Pidge started crooning an off-beat rendition of a Sarah McLachlan song.

Shiro put his hands up to calm them down, “Alright, alright, settle down, children. We have a mission. Pidge, is it downloading?”

She nodded, pointing at the percentage on the screen, “Yeah. Going good.”

“Shiro, do you know what it means?”

Shiro crossed his arms, leaning his hip against the counter, “Yes, but you’re too young to understand.”

“I am literally only younger than you.”

“Maybe physically.”

“I skipped two grades,” Pidge said.

“I helped my sister write her dissertation,” Hunk added.

Lance nodded sagely, “A fortune cookie once told me I was wise beyond my years.”

“I hate all of you.”

Shiro started in on, I can clearly remember you saying you loved me when I was a brainwashed clone, and Lance snorted, glancing behind him absentmindedly. Everything was still in place but his eyes snagged on the sweater.

He could see it was actually an officer’s jacket from this angle. The nagging feeling returned in full force and he took a step toward it, trying to find out why that was weird. It was a pretty regular thing, Adam was an officer, of course he would have a—

Oh shit.

Pidge crowed, “Hey, Lance, c’mon, you’re his boyfriend, he has to at least like you, right?” but Lance could still hear the quiet click of the bedroom door opening out of sniper habit.

He whirled toward it, almost summoning his bayard on instinct but his mind very helpfully supplied him with the fact that the number of people it could be were very limited and not gun-pulling threats.

Everybody’s laughter died out as Adam stepped out of his room.

Why would an officer leave his suit jacket home on a work trip?

He didn’t know whose sharp intake of breath it was but he gave it a hard same.

Lance had built up more of Adam as a person from Shiro’s word-of-mouth than from the hazy memories of him being a professor. It made it at least one percent less weird to see the guy in all his sleep-startled glory, eyes impossibly wide behind hastily put on glasses. A navy hoodie and flannel pajama pants.

And a bat. A Hello Kitty-themed one, but very much still fully aluminum.

Pidge gave a quiet, “Oh shit.”

“What? What’s wrong?”

Adam didn’t even spare them a glance. Lance wasn’t even sure he noticed they were in the room. He breathed a nearly inaudible, “Takashi,” and the bat almost fell out of his loosened grip before he put both hands on it. A quick glance at Shiro showed a similar level of too much emotion behind a sheer veil of disbelief.

Lance felt like he was intruding on something despite the fact technically Adam was the one—Well, it was his dorm. He couldn’t figure out the schematics. He put a hand out to touch Pidge’s arm and she held on to it.

“Everybody sound off,” Keith said, all traces of the pout gone. Full leader mode.

Shiro was the only one who said anything and it wasn’t even his name.

“Adam.” His entire body sagged with it, like the word falling out of his mouth was a physical thing weighing him down.

“What?”

Adam didn’t take a step forward but he looked caught between the space of doing it. His knuckles paled when he tightened his hold on the bat, eyes finally flickering toward Pidge and Lance, “How… Why are you here? Who sent you?”

The cliché novelty had worn off over the years of asking and being asked the same question but coming from Adam it was strange since if he was all buddy-buddy with the Garrison, he should fully know who. There was something in Adam’s voice that made it seem like it was shaking despite the determined set of his stance. All traces of it were gone when he got louder, angrier, flipping the bat up, “Answer me. Are you working with the Garrison?”

It wasn’t a question. It was accusatory.

Keith made a noise. Hunk whispered, “Oh my god.”

“Nobody sent us,” Lance answered carefully, putting his hand up. “Nobody. We’re not working with them. We…” He had to risk it because Shiro was his friend and the taut string of tension between them looked physically painful, “Aren’t you?”

Adam glanced between them all calculatingly. The bat lowered an inch every year they stood there.

He was quiet again. “No. I’m not.”

“You’re not?” Shiro said. He did take the step forward.

“No,” Adam responded. “When… When Sam came back and they isolated Collette, I knew anybody with connections with the rest of the missing people would be too. So I had to… I couldn’t be blocked out, I couldn’t live without updates again. What happened with us was common knowledge at that point so I just convinced them I didn’t give enough shits to snitch and they let me in.”

Pidge inhaled sharply, “Then why didn’t you help my dad? He said he tried contacting you and you treated him like everybody else.”

Adam blinked at her and his voice went quieter, “They’re monitoring my e-mails, my phone calls, my texts,” he said. The front was falling away from him, turning into hope, “I couldn’t risk it. I’d barely gotten them to trust me, and I knew if… I promised myself I would find a way to talk to Sam of there was anything he needed to know.”

That subdued Pidge enough that she sat back, considering him with her computer eyes. It was as good as someone could get when it concerned her family.

Lance only noticed Shiro clenching his fists because the light from his hand dimmed before glowing again, an accusatory point toward Adam with his flesh hand that resulted in yet another step closer, “You’re supposed to be in Florida.”

Adam stared for a second before narrowing his own eyes, mirroring the point with his bat, “Well I don’t know where you’re supposed to be, but it sure as hell isn’t in my room at one in the morning. Getting back home a day early isn’t a felony. Your thing is.”

“He has a point.”

“Hunk—“

Adam was getting closer too and Lance thought maybe they didn’t even notice the fact they were magnetizing. When Marco and Kathy had first started dating, he and Veronica would always tease him about how they seemed to stick together when they were in the same room. It was weird to have it happen to him later, Hunk and Pidge cooing that they were surprised he and Keith weren’t physically joined at the hip.

Being self-aware was weird.

Shiro threw both hands out now, “So my thing’s a felony, but your letting us take government information against your superiors’ knowledge isn’t?”

“How am I letting you— You broke into my room with a couple of… of…” His voice faded out. It was punctuated by the bat finally falling and Lance felt Pidge jumped at the sound.

He didn’t really see anything wrong until he realized, behind the reflection of Shiro’s glowing hand in Adam’s glasses, his eyes were wide and horrified. Staring at the prosthetic.

Right. He hadn’t been launched into orbit with that.

It could’ve been mistaken as some cool space glove if there wasn’t that space of separation between his shoulder and his elbow. Shiro must’ve understood that too because he dropped his arms, crossing them so the left was obscuring the right. Adam was across the room in the space of a breath, tugging the prosthetic out to look at it.

It was a minute before the pregnant silence was pierced by a, “Takashi,” that broke in the middle. Lance had been trying to avert his eyes—to give them some semblance of privacy that wasn’t just tucking Pidge under his arm and peacing out, Shiro would never let him live it down—but he still saw Adam hesitantly reach up to touch the scar running over the bridge of Shiro’s nose. Shiro closed his eyes. Adam curled a piece of white fringe around his index finger too.

“What happened to you?”

Shiro’s opened his eyes, only a little bit. Lance would omit the part about the tears he saw there later, out of respect for the guy. “A lot. A lot happened.”

Keith scoffed in Lance’s ear.

He dropped the hand in Shiro’s hair and turned his head to look at Lance.

It might as well have been pointing a gun at him, Lance would know, he’d experienced it several times over. “You’re Veronica’s brother right? Lance?”

Lance nodded.

“Was this before or after you guys went missing? Did you find him like this?”

Lance glanced down at Pidge and she didn’t let go of him, but she did lean back. Raised one thin eyebrow like, Your call, buddy. Thanks, kid.

“We…” Shiro made a tiny motion of his head. A go ahead. “The arm and the scar, yes, though that was a different arm. And his hair was only a little bit white back then.”

“Why is it all white now?”

Lance hissed between his teeth and scratched at the back of his head where Keith had told him he had his own little patches of white spots. “I definitely don’t think that part’s my place. Sorry.”

“That bad?”

Both he and Pidge winced. Adam’s face remained in its cycle of a complete kind of sadness tag-teaming with a special brand of pissed off. He looked like he was watching a tennis match none of them could see, between them and Shiro.

When he spoke again, the words were careful, almost scared, “Where’s Keith? And the other cadet, Garret?”

The tension in the room drained in the span of their collective exhale of relief. Hunk voiced Lance’s thought of, “He was worried about you, that’s so cute, man,” while Pidge said, “Back in the shack.”

“Alive, well, and not missing any limbs,” Shiro said reassuringly and Adam punched his left arm. He still wasn’t smiling, but he didn’t look as distraught as before.

Adam said, “Are you all staying there?” and though Lance knew the question was directed at either one of them, he was looking at Shiro.

Pidge nodded, “Yeah.”

“Okay.” He took a step away from Shiro. Finally let his arm go, slower than he should have. He turned around and started walking back toward his room, scooping the bat back up on his way, “Let’s go then.”

Huh?

That made Shiro pay attention. “What?”

He called back from inside among the noise of clothes rustling, a zipper, “You need the information on my computer, right? I have a bunch of encrypted shit in there. Even with a Holt, it’ll take a second to undo. You don’t need the hindrance.”

Shiro was actually gaping at the doorway. He glanced at Pidge and Lance like, Are you seeing this? And they put their hands up in surrender.

If it was taking a second for Lance to process, he couldn’t imagine Shiro. Lance spoke loudly, “So you’re joining our party?”

Adam popped his head out, pointing at him sharply, “Exactly!” before going back.

Hunk took a deep breath, “This is honestly going a lot better than I thought it would.”

“I really expected to be a little green stain on the ground by now,” Pidge muttered back.

“Did he have his bat?”

“His what now?”

Lance blinked, “The bat’s a thing? His thing?”

“It is,” Adam said and Lance jumped, clutching at Pidge. She snickered. He was suddenly wearing ripped jeans and sneakers instead of his pajama pants, a duffel bag thrown over his shoulder with the pink handle of the bat poking out. He halted and motioned at his ear, hopeful, “Keith?”

Shiro spoke before Lance could, “You’re coming with us?”

“Yes.” He continued to the counter and opened the bag, looking at Pidge, “Can I unplug this? I’m giving you guys the laptop anyway.”

Her eyes shined dangerously. She nodded enthusiastically.

“You know it’s dangerous right? If the Garrison finds out—“

“All of us’ll get ejected directly into the stratosphere?” Adam finished. He closed the computer and loaded it into his bag, “I know, Takashi. Sam took the risk. So did Veronica. I’d been planning on doing something all along, I just didn’t know if you were for or against. I didn’t know you’d need me.”

Something flickered over Shiro’s face over Adam’s shoulder, fast and hard. Lance looked away and Pidge slid off the chair to stand.

Adam held a hand out to them, “I know we technically know each other but hi. I’m Adam. Like the Vine.”

Keith groaned as Hunk made a delighted noise that matched Lance’s and Pidge shook Adam’s hand with vigor, “Katie. I like you.”

“Lance. Same,” Lance agreed and shook too. He had the same calluses on his fingers from pressing into guitar chords that Lance used to have before developing the ones for his rifle.

When Adam let go there was a beat of silence before Shiro said, in a tone of voice he hadn’t used since he’d last been behind the black lion’s controls, “Hunk, start leading Lance and Pidge out. I’m gonna hold back a second.”

Lance and Pidge snapped to look at each other, eyes wide. Hunk made a strange noise that muffled out Keith’s, “Oh no.”

“Shiro, uh...“

Shiro reached up and took the comm out of his ear, turning it off and tucking it into his belt. His voice wasn’t cold or rude by any stretch, but it was strained in its attempt at civility, “Any objections?”

Adam turned and gave an easy shake of his head. Pidge made a face and opened her mouth but Lance put both hands on her shoulders and started her forward, nodding, “Nope, none here, dude. We’ll just start warming up the bike. Let us know when you’re on your way out.”

He managed to get her out into the hallway before she could say anything. It was the safe zone, because as ornery as she was, she knew better than to blow a mission. She clawed over Lance’s shoulder and smacked at the side of his head, hissing, “Seriously? He’s not gonna let Adam come and then we can’t get the laptop!”

“That’s not happening,” Lance whispered just as Keith said, “Not likely.”

The silence on Keith’s side was audibly surprised. Lance just locked onto the nearest camera, mouthing, Later, then starting down the hallway with a hand on Pidge’s arm.

Lance was starting to consider the fact Adam might have been lying to them by the time he and Shiro came sprinting out toward the bike. The comm crackled in his ear and Shiro almost shouted, “Start the engine, Lance.”

"His voice sound a little raspy to you?" Pidge muttered and Lance nodded slowly.

He clambered to lean up on the front and Pidge followed suit, perching her elbows on Lance’s shoulders as the engine started purring awake. She snickered, “Did you guys get caught?”

“Pidge,” Shiro said warningly and Lance barked a laugh. There was something off about the two of them, even if Lance could barely see Adam over Shiro's back, but, hey, who was he to intrude?

(Perfectly capable. But now was not the time.)

They practically barreled on, the whole bike tilting back with their weight, and Lance tapped at his comm, “Baby's in motion. We're on our way back."

“Don’t crash my bike.”

“Wouldn't dream of it, sugar,” Lance said back, grinning, and revved the engine before setting off. It always gave him the memory of riding the first time, the adrenaline pumping in his veins from rescuing Takashi Shirogane with Keith Kogane of all people, barely holding on for his life. Someone made a weird noise behind him but with the whistling of the wind in his ears, he couldn’t make out who.

When they were finally coasting over the paths in walls of the canyon that divided the shack and the Garrison and there were no alarms or crazy ass teachers coming after them on hovers, Lance nudged at Pidge to give Hunk the signal to put the Garrison's footage back in order. He gave an affirmative. He finally skid the bike over the barren patch of ground where they always parked it, letting it settle down before killing the engine with a jiggle of the keys since they always tended to get stuck.

He waited for everybody else to get down before he did and he didn't miss the fact Adam handed his duffel over to Shiro, muttering something in the privacy of their bowed heads. Huh.

So when Adam looked up and called, "Hey, Lance," he had to look like he wasn't totally creeping on them. Crap.

“What’s up?” Lance responded easily, sliding off the side of the bike and swirling the keys around his finger. Adam’s eyes flickered over to them at the twinkling noise of the little star-shaped charms Lance had hooked on them when Keith hadn’t been looking.

“Did you call Keith ‘sugar’ on the comm earlier?”

Lance blinked. He felt his ears go a little bit warm and he laughed sheepishly, “Uh, yeah. We’re boyfriends. Or, like, a super cool samurai-slash-sharpshooter ninja duo that also happen to kiss, but he gets red if I say that.”

“Because it sounds stupid,” Pidge said.

Lance threw his hands up, kicking at her as she walked by, “It’s adorable, shut up.”

“If that tickles your pickle—“

“Oh my god, you have to stop saying that—“

She cackled. Shiro pressed a hand into her back as he walked by toward the shack, muttering a, "Another dollar in the dick joke jar," before going inside. Once again, Lance absolutely did not miss the pointed look back at Adam Shiro paused to give, but he did miss how Adam responded to it.

Okay. Okay.

Which left Lance with Adam outside. Alone. With Adam.

He stuck his tongue in his cheek, giving a weak smile, "Why do I feel like you're about to give me a very literal version of the shovel talk?"

"Wh—" Adam's eyes widened, pushing his glasses up and shaking his head, "Oh! No. I'm not doing that. Usually my job, though. Takashi has the build for the whole interrogation thing, but I have the conviction. Where do you think Keith got his bitch face from?"

It halfway jarred him to hear someone call Shiro by his first name. Not even Keith did that, unless they were fucking with each other or Keith was worrying. He had to remind himself of that. This was someone who knew Shiro probably better than Keith. And Shiro was his friend. 

Lance let the nervous energy evaporate off him with a quiet exhale and he nodded gratefully, "Alright. Fair. So what's up?"

"I do want to talk about Keith," Adam admitted, leaning against the bike with his hip. And, honestly, Lance wanted for nothing considering how much he loved his gorgeous boyfriend, but he could really see how Shiro had fallen for this guy so hard.

Lance smiled wider, "Lucky for you, that's one of my favorite things to talk about. Shoot."

"How..." The casualness of the leaning turned into a stressed show of him crossing his arms, like there was a string attached to his wrists making the rest of him seize up like a pop up tent. He didn't look away from him, though. Opposite of Keith, very much Shiro. Unnerving amount of eye contact the glasses did not one thing to help shield. "How is he, Lance?"

"How is he?" Lance echoed, tilting his head to the side. 

Adam nodded and talked with one of his hands gesturing along with his voice, "Yeah. I know it's a weird question, considering everything, but you have to understand... the last time I saw him, he was torn apart. I had the Garrison to distract me, if only a little bit, but Keith lost so much when it happened."

It wasn't his earliest memory, but it was one of the clearest. Kogane storming into his— their Flight class, all crackling anger and defiant shouting. It was about the loudest anybody had ever heard him speak, punctuated by a clean, quick deck directly into Iverson's left eye socket for being a fucking coward before he was being escorted out by—

"Dude, was Professor Wahaba crying?"

"Professor who?"

"Right," Lance said quietly.

"I tried visiting when I could, but it was like I'd lost him too, even before I actually did." He shifted his feet and straightened out, shrugging one shoulder, "So I'm asking you, because Keith rarely told Takashi anything unless prompted, and he got better at the whole stubbornness the older he got. How long have you two been together?"

Lance answered immediately, "Eleven months, two weeks, and four days, in Earth time."

Adam blinked, the side of his mouth doing a weird thing where Lance couldn't tell what expression it was leading toward. Very early Keith reminiscent. It was almost nostalgic. "Are you guys happy?"

Thank God it was dark because he knew his entire face was going red and he looked like a doofus when he said, "Yeah," in a voice Pidge would have a field day teasing him over. Adam looked about read to do the same thing and Lance flapped his hand out, "Hey, don't start. We are!"

"I don't doubt it," Adam responded,and his voice went quiet . "So's that how he is? Happy?"

Lance , "Well, yeah. I think. We've... A lot's happened. Keith's in a big position with a lot of responsibilities and I help him all I can, even if he doesn't want me to, but it's still a lot. We're a family, though. We've made it through everything together. I don't think any of us can say we've come out of it unharmed, but we still have each other." He reached up and sheepishly scratched at the back of his neck, "Which is kinda cheesy, saying it out loud. That's the way I see it."

Adam shook his head and reached forward to poke at Lance's shoulder, "That's fine. Cheesy's better than I was hoping for."

There was a quick flash of light in the direction of the house and Lance glanced at it quickly before smiling. "Good. 'S that all you wanna ask me? Because I'm pretty sure Keith'd be willing to answer."

Adam followed his line of sight to the shutters of the window closing in a flash of pale fingers before the door was being slammed open. Keith could've looked the least bit intimidating if he was wearing his armor, but the soft light of the shack and the worn Christmas-themed pajamas he was wearing didn't help. Shiro was hovering behind him, sounding like he was trying to be apologetic without actually looking it, "I tried keeping him away."

"No, you didn't," Adam said, not even a little bit mad about it, and he hadn't even taken a step forward before Keith was crashing into him. Lance put a hand out to steady them before leaving them be. He didn't even take a picture of it, and that was saying something (if Hunk was doing it from the front porch, it was sheer best friend instinct).

He joined everybody there instead, watching as Adam suddenly pulled back and shook Keith a little bit despite how he was crying, "So tell me again how it's a good idea to break into a government facility—"

"It was for Shiro!"

"You could've called me!" He yelled back and something got caught in his throat because he looked at Keith and pulled him back in with a hiccuping, "I'll kill you after I'm done suffocating you in hugs, you brat."

Keith gave a choked noise, starting to almost lift Adam off his feet.

"He wasn't nearly as emotional with Shiro," Pidge intoned, eyes shifting toward him. "Did he miss Keith more than you?"

Shiro made a faint sound in response, but he wasn't looking at her. The incredibly soft look on his face threatened to melt him. A black and white puddle of six foot beefcake. Lance was so making fun of him later.

(Which would absolutely hypocritical, but Shiro made the mistake of breaching the divide to let them be friends, so.)

The chill of the desert at night was starting in and they eventually had to file inside at some point. Adam let go of Keith and Lance automatically held an arm out for Keith to tuck himself under, reaching up and wiping away all the tears and snot. "That's a look, babe," he muttered, and Keith gave a hiccuping laugh, elbowing him without force. He finally got the chance to look around and poke at Hunk, "Hey. Where's everybody else?"

Hunk was grinning at Keith's other side, "On their way back. Allura texted me a few minutes ago so they should be halfway here. She said Krolia and Coran figured out which one of Blue's screens it was causing the disruption."

"Cool."

Keith stiffened. Lance was about to ask when he realized it too.

Oh shit.

Krolia.

Lance looked up sharply and every single face around him reflected it before turning toward Adam.

He was closing the door. He did it much slower. "What happened? Who are you guys talking about?"

"We have a couple of, um," Hunk attempted. He blinked and put his hands together, pointing with them, "You see... It's like..."

"When in space," Shiro continued, "one makes interesting friends."

"And even more interesting mothers," Hunk finished and Pidge clapped a small hand over his mouth.

Adam's eyes widened considerably, "What?"

Keith's hand was unconsciously reaching for the nonexistent blade on his nonexistent belt. Lance let his hand slide down to grab that one, squeezing it and perching on the arm of the couch behind them. "I, um," he started. "I found my mom. In space."

"What?" 

"My mom," Keith repeated. "She's part of this rebel force fighting against the Galra."

"Yeah, y'know," Hunk pumped one weak fist up, "Galra v. Galra. It's PEMDAS."

Adam looked between them, pushing his glasses up unto his head, his other hand stuttering with his voice, "So your mom's Galra?"

Hunk inhaled sharply and let out a short wail, letting his face fall in his hands, "Keith, I'm sorry—"

Lance reached over and pat his back, "It's fine, buddy—"

"I need to get more sleep," he said miserably.

Keith tugged him over to lay down on the couch, "It's okay, man." He looked back at Adam, apprehensive, "Yeah. Which means I am too."

"He has fangs sometimes," Lance supplied. 

"And glowy eyes! Can't forget the glowy eyes," Pidge chimed in.

Adam blinked. He finally glanced at Shiro, who gave a helpless kind of shrug, before turning fully toward Keith. "Can you show me?"

Lance snickered, "Always the selling point."

Keith squeezed his fingers, "Shut up." He nodded at Adam and closed his mouth, tongue poking at the inside of his cheeks before he bared his teeth wide. There they were. Keith really didn't mind showing them off until Lance said he thought they were really cute, which he just found really unfair, because they were. In a deadly kind of way.

Adam gawked, reaching over and grabbing Keith's jaw to look at them from all angles.

"The glowy eyes are more a special occasions thing," Lance said helpfully, definitely absolutely not because he knew Keith couldn't comment with his mouth shut. "High levels of emotion. It's fucking awesome in the middle of an actual battle, but when it's stupid things, it's funny."

"Ah, the great Level Twenty incident in Green," Pidge mused and Keith narrowed his eyes at her.

Adam let go of Keith, and despite the thoughtfulness in his face, he was grinning, "What's that?"

"Anybody says anything, I'm literally turning you into a shish kebab," Keith snapped, even as Shiro had started clearing his throat.

"It was one monotonous stretch of the trip, not a planet or moon for miles—"

"Takashi," Keith said in his very patented, very sexy Leader voice that nobody but Lance seemed to find the aforementioned sexy.

Better that way anyway.

Lance had to snap out of it to pay attention to Pidge's, "Lance, check, I think I see a little yellow from here."

He saluted and gave a sweet, "Hey, Keithy bear, let's stare into each other's eyes real fast," to which Keith did turn, if only to give him a death glare, but his eyes weren't glowing. "Nada," Lance confirmed and dipped in to press a quick kiss between them, "just a really dreamy grey."

Pidge made fake gagging noises as Keith pushed at Lance's face gently, all the hostility fading away with the blush rising in his cheeks. "The gist is I'm half-alien," Keith said loudly, leaning his elbow on Lance's shoulder so he couldn't go back in. "Krolia is my mother."

"Still our lovable, huggable Keith, though," Lance mused, letting his head fall on Keith's forearm.

"Just a little purple," Hunk said drowsily, one hand coming up with the sign for 'little' before dropping again. Lance reached down and brushed the hair out of his face, patting his forehead.

"Exactly."

"I can see that," Adam said. It wasn't until that moment that Lance realized he'd just been looking at Keith up to that point, half slouching up on the wall, half on Shiro. Huh.

Well.

Pidge kicked off the back of the couch and tugged at Adam's duffel bag, still hanging on Shiro's arm, "Now that we're halfway caught up, I have some info to grab. Adam, your assistance?"

"Sure thing, shortstack," Adam said and followed her to the corner of the living room where all their other monitors were set up. Lance hadn't wanted to take down all of Keith's graphs and drawing, so he took a picture and took each down. It was stored in a box upstairs.

Lance looked back to see Keith raising an eyebrow at Shiro, who had the self-awareness to cover up the arm Adam had been leaning against with one hand. Lance waggled his eyebrows and Shiro cut the hand across his throat in what could barely be considered a threat.

It was a few minutes, Lance and Keith peering over both Adam and Pidge's shoulders as they pulled up file after file queuing up to print (because despite how X-Files the cork board method is, it's good to have just in case), that Wolfie appeared across his shoulders. The shock would never wear off, but Lance was used to it enough at this point that he braced himself automatically, hands flying up to grab his legs on either side so he wouldn't just slide off. "Woah, there, buddy," Lance said, stumbling.

Adam glanced back before completely whirling, mouth open, attempting to get out a, "Holy—" before Wolfie was on him, knocking him fully to the floor by laying on his chest and licking at his face. Pidge started up her cackling.

"Company's here," Hunk slurred out, holding his tablet up (unnecessarily, but a sleepy Hunk was always adorable and Lance wasn't about to say anything).

Keith was grabbing Wolfie around the middle to pick him up off of Adam, adjusting so he was holding him like a baby, "This is Wolfie. He likes new people. I should've warned you." Wolfie made a short noise that wasn't quite a bark and Lance scratched behind his ears.

"Alien?" Despite his hair standing up on multiple slobbered peaks and his glasses just completely hanging off one ear, he was grinning widely. 

"Yeah," Lance confirmed. "He usually rides with Keith, but today he was feeling Coran."

"Means my mom's here too," Keith added. 

Adam was on his feet in a second, "Really?"

"Yuh," Hunk put in eloquently.

Adam's eyes somehow managed to bug out even more before he was putting in every effort to tame his hair and wipe the dog spit off himself. Lance was about to go to grab a paper towel before Shiro beat him to it.

And you know what, it wasn't super necessary for Shiro to be the one wiping, but Lance honestly couldn't say anything on the subject.

"I'm gonna start going out to tell them everything went smoothly.," Lance whispered in Keith's ear, pressing a kiss to it as he quickly got out, "Make sure they're both fully clothed when I get back," that he knew would earn him the smack at the back of his head that he entirely deserved. But it'd been right there. Lance snickered, sticking his tongue out as he went and Keith was finally able to flip him off in person.

They were just touching down on the shuttles outside and Lance bounded out, one fist up in the air to launch himself at Allura, as per tradition. She took his weight easily, swinging him around and putting him down as Romelle said, "Everything went well, then?"

"Swimmingly," Lance responded, touching his fingers together to make an okay sign. He turned his smile on Krolia and Coran, "We bagged the personal laptop and we know for a fact it has useful information because of our excellent source."

"Sam Holt?" Coran asked, finally taking off his helmet. Nobody else wore them, but once he'd learned about the concept of having an aesthetic, he'd launched himself into his own and they all supported him on it.

Lance shook his head, "Adam."

Allura's head snapped up from looking at Romelle (Lance would comment on the fact she was supposed to be the functioning bi representation on the team later), "Adam? Asin Shiro's Adam?"

Krolia's eyes didn't widen so much as dilate so they resembled a feline's more closely. Very much a mother lion thing. She knew who Adam was, how important he was to Keith. Lance tried to make his voice as reassuring as possible because of it, turning on his heel to head toward the house again, "It's a long story, but I swear he's chill. We can explain everything while you look over the files, Krolia."

"That sounds good," Krolia said.

Lance didn't know why he hesitated when he opened the door but he masked it with a deep breath before pushing it in, smiling wide, "Party's here!"

Of course, nobody but Hunk really seemed to hear him because they were too busy trying to get Wolfie off Adam again. He finally phased away so they all fell on top of each other when Krolia clicked her tongue and called him over. He reappeared at her feet, rolling onto his back. She bent down to scratch his belly but didn't take her eyes off everybody.

She always did that. It was unnerving.

They all scrambled away, Adam making it up in time to help Keith while Shiro helped Pidge. His hair was spiked up again and he'd lost his glasses entirely.

Shiro shook his head, "If you give in—

Keith finished, "To the puppy eyes—"

Adam snorted, "You're telling me you two resist?"

"Ha!" Pidge barked and Adam motioned at her.

"Thank you, Katie."

Keith looked like he was about to lift a very offending finger up at him before he caught sight of Krolia and straightened up. "Mom! Guys. Hey."

Lance took a step away for Adam to get a better look when he lifted his head. He was actually able to keep the signs of surprise to a minimum this time, only his mouth twitching, his eyes getting bigger. Was his height of surprise really Keith and not the seven foot tall purple woman? Did he need his glasses? He pushed his shoulders back two, pulling his hoodie down and running a hand through hair hair, which halfway fixed it, but there wasn't much one could do with Wolfie slobber.

He cleared his throat, fluttering one hand, "Hello. I'm Adam Wahaba."

"I know," Krolia said. Lance knew she didn't say it to sound intimidating but damn if it didn't make his skin erupt in goosebumps.

"We've heard of you," Allura amended, smiling brightly as she stepped out from behind Krolia. "I'm Allura, paladin of the Blue lion. Thank you for your help."

"I'm happy to give it."

Romelle swiveled around Allura softly to crowd Adam, bouncing on her toes, "My name's Romelle. So you're a genuine human?"

The other four (conscious) human heads in the room snapped up, "Hey!"

Pidge swirled her arm around, "What are we, spilled space goo?"

"You've all been space-minted," she dismissed. They squawked at her. "He's Earth-bound! I have so many questions!"

"As do I," Coran said with a flourish of his coat and an outstretched hand. "Coran Hieronymus Wimbleton Smythe, at your service."

Adam cracked a grin as he took the hand to shake. So did Lance.

It didn't drop so much as fade in to become more natural with his face when Krolia stood up, towering without meaning to (or meaning to, really, Lance couldn't read her as well as he could Keith, but she had the same I'm gonna fuck with you if I have the chance streak) as she stepped forward. She tilted her head and when Coran dropped his hand, Adam kept his outstretched. Krolia looked at it. then back toward Adam's face. Adam had either started sweating or he still had Wolfie all over his face.

Lance had to look away to keep from snorting, skirting around the side to bump into Keith and muffle it into his shoulder.

Krolia took Adam's hand. She shook it once firmly, "Thank you for helping take care of my son. It means a lot to me to know he had people who love him surrounding him."

Lance squeezed Keith's arm. He laced their fingers together and Lance squeezed those too.

"I did it because I love him," Adam responded. "You don't have to thank me."

It was the right answer, if there was a wrong one. Krolia's face went back to the way Lance had grown used to seeing it, not quite as scary but still very much a case of chronic RBF. Same as Keith.

"No. I suppose I don't. But I'll do it anyway."

Lance usually woke up in the middle of the night dying of thirst after doing a lot right before going to sleep, and the hours they spent poring over and organizing the information on the laptop had the same effect. Keith was used to it at that point, relinquishing him with only minimal grumbling so he could pad downstairs to get some water. He hopped over the second to last step that always creaked and carefully scanned the living room to make sure he hadn't woken anybody. They'd moved Hunk up to their room so Adam could sleep on the pullout couch while Shiro volunteered to sleep on the floor before they could come up with a more permanent solution.

There was nobody on the floor.

Lance carefully got a mug out of the cabinet as he kept looking before he landed on the white head of hair beside Adam's dark one on the bed. He had to clutch the mug with both hands so it wouldn't fall.

They weren't even that close or anything. The only part Lance could really see touching, illuminated by the dim light of Shiro's prosthetic, were their fingertips. Just barely.

He swallowed the Aw in his throat down, carefully opening a trickle of water from the sink to take a quick gulp before striding back upstairs, taking them two at a time. He stepped over where Pidge was tucked into a sleeping bag beside the bed, tablet clutched in her arms, to slip back under the covers.

Keith snuggled back into him automatically, pulling Lance's arm over his waist. Lance buried his nose into the back of his neck.

He almost told him. Whispered it against his skin.

But it really wasn't his business. Adam was one of them now, if he and Shiro wanted to tell them, they would. Lance closed his eyes.

They'd have time now, anyway. The Coalition had the upper hand.